Peer Leadership in Beaver Scouts

As the youngest Scouting section, Beaver Scouts is the start of a young person’s journey to develop leadership skills and this will likely be their first opportunity to be a leader. There is no set name for peer leadership in Beaver Scouts and Colonies can choose whatever works best for them. Some ideas of names used by Colonies are Lodge Leaders, Lodge Friends and Junior Leader.

As Beavers are just beginning to develop their leadership skills, Colonies often appoint a leader for a shorter amount of time than they would in Cubs. It is recommended that a Beaver takes on the role for a term. A term allows them a good amount of time to progress their leadership skills, whilst still being a taster and giving other Beaver Scouts the opportunity.

A woggle is available from Scout Shops for Beavers to wear to show that they are the leader for that period of time. This can be easily passed onto another Beaver at the end of their time doing the role.

Once a Beaver has completed a period of time as a leader, they can be given the yellow Beaver leadership stripes. These can be proudly worn on their uniform and marks the start of their leadership journey.

A poster can also be displayed in the meeting place with Kyla’s top three tips for being a great leader in Beavers. The poster can be found on the Print Centre.

Knowing exactly what tangible tasks to give to a Beaver Scout and what to expect of them at this stage in their development can be challenging. Although every young person is different, we have developed a guide to peer leadership in Beavers for leaders to help give some ideas and guidance. This can be found here.

Have a question about peer leadership in Beavers?

These FAQs have been developed to answer the most common queries.

1. Why has peer leadership been introduced into Beaver Scouts?

Many Colonies around the UK already have a peer leadership system in place, such as Lodge Leaders. At YouShape 2016, we recognised that young people wanted peer leadership in Beavers, but that there were no resources or guidance to support them. Therefore, we have developed resources to support those who have peer leadership in their Beaver Colony and those who would like to implement it.

2. How was it decided to develop the stripes, a poster and a woggle?

We consulted on peer leadership resources at a number of events, such as Fun Days and Gilwell Reunion, speaking to young people and to leaders. A team working on youth shaped Scouting around the UK also kindly consulted with Colonies and Leaders local to them and fed back.

A top tips poster has been created as we found giving Beavers 3 tangible tips on leadership was a good start to their journey, making it meaningful, without giving them too much to think about. Creating a guidance leaflet, like those for Cubs and Scouts was decided against as some Beaver Scouts found them challenging to read.

3. Cubs have Sixers, Scouts have Patrol Leaders, what are peer leaders called in Beavers?

A lot of consultation has taken place around the name for peer leadership in Beavers. There is no one name that worked for Beavers, as it is apparent that different places are already using different names.

Many Colonies choose to call their peer leaders- Lodge Leaders. This is a popular choice, however we have chosen not to adopt this as an official title, as the title Lodge Leader has negative political connotations in some of the nations. As we are an inclusive movement, it was decided that it was therefore better to leave the decision of what to call peer leadership in Beavers to the decision of the each Colony that wants to implement the initiative. Why not ask your Beavers what they would like to be called? Some ideas of names used are Lodge Leaders, Lodge Friends and Junior Leaders.

The most important part of peer leadership is not what you call it, but that the Beaver Scouts have an enjoyable and meaningful experience developing their leadership skills.